


(In)Dependence

by resonae



Series: Golden Silence [2]
Category: VIXX
Genre: M/M, selective mutism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 05:08:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2839190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resonae/pseuds/resonae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>”You don’t regret introducing me to him?”</p><p>There was a smile, a glint of something that made Hongbin sit up straighter. “You could never catch up, anyway.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	(In)Dependence

Hongbin raised his eyebrow at Taekwoon in front of him. After years and years of Hakyeon’s efforts to make Taekwoon another friend, Taekwoon had finally opened up to Hongbin, and the three of them had managed to get into college together, mostly through Hakyeon and Taekwoon’s efforts to hammer studies into Hongbin’s head. (Hongbin’s mother, later on, would tell him that the best thing he’d done in his life was make friends with Hakyeon and Taekwoon, “because otherwise how would you have gotten into SU???”)

But even if Taekwoon didn’t cower away from Hongbin, Taekwoon had yet to say a single word to him. He felt a weird stab of jealousy whenever Taekwoon would drop his head and whisper something, and Hakyeon would tilt his head, the brightest smile on his face and something tender that Hongbin couldn’t  _quite_  read in his eyes, just so he could hear better.

“Woon,” he called, and Taekwoon looked up for a moment before dropping his gaze back to the problems he was solving. “Woon, I don’t get this problem.” Taekwoon sighed and looked up again, leaning forward to look at the problem Hongbin was pointing to. His eyes looked back up at Hongbin as if to say  _how could you not know are you an idiot_ , but Taekwoon just tugged Hongbin’s notebook toward him, mechanical pencil making scratching noises on the paper as he went through the problem step by step. Hongbin pointed to one of the steps, looking expectantly at Taekwoon. “How come you knew how to do that here? Can I do that all the time?”

Hongbin wasn’t an idiot. He might not have been as smart as Taekwoon or Hakyeon, but he didn’t have to have every single thing explained. He just wanted to see if he could push Taekwoon to talk. Taekwoon gave him a look, and Hongbin’s intentions were probably as clear as day, but Hongbin just offered him a smile.

And then there was a hand on the back of Hongbin’s head pushing his face down onto his notebook. Hakyeon slid into the seat next to Taekwoon, sliding him an illicit cup of coffee. If a library staff saw that, they’d probably all get kicked out, but no one ever checked the back corner table where Taekwoon and Hakyeon and Hongbin always studied. “Stop being a brat.”

“Where’s my coffee?”

Hakyeon smirked, “Are you my boyfriend?”

And there it was. Hongbin wanted to say something like _I totally called that happening_ , but that day so long ago in their 2nd year of high school when Hakyeon had just burst up mid-conversation, Hongbin kind of knew something was going to happen. In fact, it was a surprise that it hadn’t happened earlier. A day later, Hakyeon had told Hongbin he was dating Taekwoon, and Hongbin hadn’t even been surprised. He’d just told them to practice safe sex, which had gotten him a scowl.

They fell back into doing their assignments, and Hongbin glanced up from time to time every time he heard Taekwoon’s soft voice, almost inaudible to anyone but Hakyeon himself, who tilted his head with the warmest smile ever so he could give all of his attention to what Taekwoon was saying. Hongbin glanced back down at his paper. Third wheeling. It felt great.

—

There was one class that Hongbin and Taekwoon took together that Hakyeon didn’t. He had to take a requirement for his own major instead, and Hakyeon had told Hongbin, again and again until Hongbin felt like his ears were literally going to fall off, that he had to take care of Taekwoon.

“Woon,” Hongbin tapped his pencil against the desk. “I’m gonna get coffee. You want?” Taekwoon looked up and nodded, looking bright as he always did whenever there was food and especially coffee involved. Hongbin waited for Taekwoon to finish whatever he had been highlighting and he chatted the whole way to the vending machines, keeping Taekwoon on the side near the walls so he wouldn’t have to deal with the hallway traffic.

Hongbin paid (although they cost 1000 won) and hummed as Taekwoon stared at the not-many choices before pressing a pale finger to the one he always got anyway. He always looked so much happier when he had coffee in his hands and Hongbin rolled his eyes, nudging him to the walls again so he could be the wall against Taekwoon and hallway traffic.

Social anxiety. Hongbin had seen Taekwoon as his worst, when he was so overtaken with terror that he couldn’t even breathe. Hakyeon had just wrapped him up in his arms, whispering soft words and stroking his back until the tremors stopped and Taekwoon fell into a limp weight in his arms. It happened more often than Hongbin would have liked, not that Taekwoon could control it. Even when they were walking, Hongbin could feel Taekwoon flinch minutely if someone walked too close.

Hongbin slung his arm around Taekwoon’s shoulders, grinning up at Taekwoon. “I got you. I’m not Hakyeon, but I got you, yeah?” Taekwoon looked at him for a bit, and ducked his head, but Hongbin caught the smile that quirked at the corners of his lips and he grinned, sipping on his coffee.

The way back to their classroom wasn’t even long, but there was a voice calling his name. Taekwoon glanced at him, poking his side. “I heard. Just leave it be. If I reply to her now, you’re going to have to walk back to class alone.”

Taekwoon nodded and Hongbin saw a ghost of a smile again. Hongbin managed to steer Taekwoon clear from the crowd as they sat back down, just in time for the lecture to start again and Taekwoon poked Hongbin’s side, frowning at the way he had his head down already on top of his incomplete notes. Hongbin just offered him a grin. “Your notes make more sense than his lecture, anyway.”

And Taekwoon sighed in exasperation.

—

Hongbin woke up mid-lecture and Taekwoon gave him a total judging look, but when Hongbin offered him a sleepy smile, Taekwoon only shook his head in exasperation and tapped his head before turning his attention back to the lecture. Hongbin wondered if it was even worth trying to pay attention back to the lecture when he’d missed a huge chunk of it, but sat up anyway, glancing around the lecture hall.

His eyes met with a pretty  _sunbae_  about four rows in front of him, and when she smiled shyly he smiled back out of force of habit and regretted it immediately. Ah. The voice in the hallway calling his name.

“Hey,” Hongbin whispered to Taekwoon, “Get ready to leave lecture as soon as it ends, okay?”

Taekwoon looked confused but nodded, pushing his pencils and colored pens into the pencilcase as the lecture wrapped up. Hongbin swept his things into his bag and swiped Taekwoon’s up in a hurry, and Taekwoon followed without quite understanding why they were in such a hurry to leave.

“Hongbin!”

Ah. Hongbin clicked his tongue. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to hear the confession. Well, on second thought, maybe it was, because he wasn’t interested in dating her. But he was more worried about what Taekwoon was going to do while he was talking to her. He turned, pushing Taekwoon behind him again. “Sunbae,” he greeted, forcing a bright smile on his face.

She was pretty. One of the prettiest girls in the school, and well known for her kindness. There wasn’t a male on campus that didn’t want to date her. (Except, Hongbin guessed, Taekwoon and Hakyeon, for obvious reasons.) She smiled up at him, bright smile lighting up her face, and shyly tucked her hair behind her ears. “I was hoping we could talk for a bit.”

Hongbin almost cursed. It wasn’t as if he could randomly say  _sorry sunbae I can’t because I gotta be the shield between Taekwoon and the world when Hakyeon isn’t around_. The professors knew Taekwoon’s condition, but Taekwoon kept it from everyone else. Everyone else thought Taekwoon was just shy. Or didn’t like socializing. Taekwoon’s hand was on his back, shaking lightly, and Hongbin managed to smile again. “Uh, sure. What is it?”

She frowned a little and glanced up at Taekwoon. “In private, I was hoping. Like we could go to a café?”

Hongbin gnawed at his bottom lip. “Uh. Sunbae, I’m really sorry but I have class again in 45 minutes.” He glanced at his watch. “40. It’s a little tight for me to go to a café and come back.”

“Oh!” She covered her mouth. “Oh, right. I totally forgot you guys take different classes. We could talk here. But, uhm.” She glanced up at Taekwoon again and Taekwoon grabbed his bag from Hongbin’s hands. He practically ran away from the pair, sitting himself at the far corner of the room away from them in the empty classroom. The girl’s eyes followed Taekwoon, who plugged his ears with earphones before ducking his head into a notebook he’d pulled out.

“Sorry,” Hongbin muttered. “Woonie’s a little..”

“It’s fine.” She smiled. She then paused. “You call him Woonie? I guess you guys were friends for a while? Boys don’t really call each other like that, do they?”

Hongbin smiled and nodded, even though it wasn’t really true. She was right that boys didn’t really call each other that, but he’d gotten to know Taekwoon through Hakyeon, who never called Taekwoon anything  _but_ Woon.

Hongbin was barely listening to her shy confession. He kept glancing at Taekwoon to make sure no one was approaching him, and he didn’t even remember the apology he’d blurted rejecting her, surprising himself with the rejection of the hottest girl around on campus.

He bowed deeply to her in apology and half-ran toward Taekwoon, sighing in relief when he saw Taekwoon was just engrossed in his music and neatly organizing his lecture notes. “Sorry.” He smiled apologetically, and Taekwoon shrugged. “Library?”

Taekwoon nodded, but he glanced over at the sunbae who was staring at them. “Don’t worry about it.” Hongbin muttered. “You wanna get something to eat instead? I’m kind of hungry.”

Taekwoon ducked his head, and Hongbin heard the exasperated snort of a silent laughter. Taekwoon nodded, hitching his backpack onto his back and clutching the two empty coffee cans in his hand. When Hongbin had first found out about Taekwoon’s disability, he’d thought about incapability. But Hakyeon had shot that idea down immediately. Taekwoon was more than capable of taking care of himself, and more than capable of being good at what he liked. Hakyeon had scolded Hongbin for trying to do everything for Taekwoon, but Hongbin still had urges to do whatever he could. (Hongbin pointed out that  _Hakyeon_  did everything for Taekwoon, but then Hakyeon had pointed out that he was Taekwoon’s boyfriend so that was okay.)

Taekwoon paid for the lunch at the school cafeteria, long fingers pushing the piles of sandwiches aside so he could find the one Hakyeon liked. Most people, including Hongbin himself at the beginning, when they saw Hakyeon and Taekwoon, thought Hakyeon was the only one that liked Taekwoon, friendship or otherwise. Taekwoon was constantly pushing Hakyeon away whenever Hakyeon clung on.

Hongbin had, when he didn’t know better, pointed out to Hakyeon that it looked really seriously like that he was the only one that liked Taekwoon. Hakyeon had clicked his tongue and told him  _you’ll learn_.

And he did. He learned even when Taekwoon pushed Hakyeon away, he never did it seriously, and when Hakyeon let himself be pushed, he’d reach and catch Hakyeon’s wrist again. And times like these, Taekwoon showed he cared about Hakyeon in the smallest things. Knowing exactly what Hakyeon liked and taking the extra step to find it. Some people might say  _it’s just a goddamned sandwich_ , but it wasn’t. Taekwoon was constantly thinking about Hakyeon.

They made it to class with five minutes to spare, and Taekwoon dropped the sandwich on Hakyeon’s head. “Woon,” Hakyeon beamed, looking so touched that someone who didn’t know would think Taekwoon never did anything like this. “Aw, you thought of me.”

“It was my idea to go get food,” Hongbin grumbled, dropping on the seat next to Hakyeon and watching Taekwoon take the seat closest to the window.

“Awww,” Hakyeon cooed, talking to Hongbin but looking at Taekwoon with the sweetest smile on his face that made Hongbin want to gag. Hakyeon glanced over at him, grinning like an idiot still. “Does the baby want a cookie? I actually have cookies.”

Hongbin rolled his eyes. “You say that like I don’t know you brought them for Woonie.”

“I don’t mind giving you some, actually, bros before hos and all that.”

Hongbin made a display of rolling his eyes as theatrically as possible before flicking Hakyeon on the forehead and pushing him toward Taekwoon.

—

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising that the next day, everyone on campus was talking about how Hongbin was gay and dating Taekwoon. “I should’ve known.” Hongbin groaned, hitting his forehead on the cafeteria table. “That fucking  _bitch_. And she’s supposed to be  _nice_?”

“Let me guess,” Hakyeon snickered, sounding amused. “It was Eunah-sunbae.” Hongbin nodded against the table. It kind of felt gross. “And you said no, and went to Woonie, and voila, rumor.”

Hongbin looked up. Taekwoon wasn’t with them that day. He’d been feeling a little off for a while, and apparently he’d come down with a fever and Hakyeon had made him stay in bed. “How’d you know?”

“How’d I know that Eunah-sunbae confessed to you? Her crush on you isn’t exactly the best kept secret-“

“No, that I said no.”

“Because some of us have brains that we use. Obviously you haven’t told me that you’re dating her. And why would she spread this rumor if you said yes. Also,” Hakyeon’s smile didn’t falter. “You like Taekwoon.”

Hongbin raised his head slowly. “..And you’re okay with that. You don’t regret introducing me to him?”

Hakyeon shrugged. “Of course not. Taekwoon having more people to depend on than just me is important. Plus, it doesn’t matter.” There was a smile, a glint of something that made Hongbin sit up straighter. “You could never catch up, anyway.”


End file.
